Parameshwara to take oath as Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister

The Congress would have 22 ministers and JD(S) 12, he said, adding they would be sworn in after the floor test slated for Thursday. Kumaraswamy will be the second chief minister to take oath in Karnataka within a week, after BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa stepped down without facing the floor test on May 19 in the face of imminent defeat. The JD(S)’s chief minister-designate said portfolio distribution will be discussed and a coordination committee will be formed to facilitate smooth functioning of the coalition. 

Kumaraswamy, the third son of JD(S) supremo and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, will be administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Vajubhai Vala at 4:30 pm in front of Vidhana Soudha, seat of the government in Bengaluru. 

A huge stage has been erected in front of the majestic stone building for the ceremony where a host of national and regional leaders are expected to be present to send a message across to the BJP over the shape of things to come in 2019. 

Government officials and sources in the JD(S) said Congress president Rahul Gandhi, his mother and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister 

Mamata Banerjee, Chandrababu Naidu, Arvind Kejriwal and Pinarayi Vijayan, her counterparts in Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Kerala, are among those likely to be present.

So would be CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, one of the most vocal votaries of an anti-BJP alliance, Tejashwi Yadav, the Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah.

BSP chief Mayawati and SP leader Akhilesh Yadav, who have formed an alliance in Uttar Pradesh would also attend the ceremony. 

DMK leader M K Stalin, who was also expected to be present in order to show the burgeoning opposition consolidation against the BJP, has cancelled his Bengaluru visit and would instead head for Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu where nine people were killed in police firing.